Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Chapter 7

Word Count: 835 | Released on: 16/06/2026

n only by Rosalind's hiccupping sobs. Eleanor an

ing! What does my brother have to do with

son, the heir, would refuse his duty was unthinkable. "Adeline, yo

gaze steady. "I'm telling the truth. If you don

uke's heir on such a matter would be a mo

threats. Eleanor looked about to call

ice cut through from the

tall and coldly authoritative. His gaze swept the scene-the shattered bowl, Rosalind's tears, Eleanor's rigid

s! You have to do something about her!" She pointed accusingly at Adeline. "She re

s empty because you refuse to behave like a husband. Then she

umph. "She told me that instead of buying her

complete

ly fractured. His jaw locked, and a hard flush rose beneath his

said

ng. "I suggested that medicine should

in his nec

e your mother and sister. She claims the empty cradle is not caused by any defect in

ut beneath it lay something more immediate: the raw offense of a man whose most

onged. Now he could either deny her and let his family resume forcing drugs i

enial made both mother and sister uneasy. They e

poke through cl

ong about the

pped. "Brother, wh

eline's. "I am the rea

ore he added, each word clippe

r and Rosalind. "Let no one in this roo

nd shrink back. His pride had been

" he continued. "That decis

fection-alliance. Strategic positioning that instan

She will not be forced to drink concoctions of questionable origin." He turned to h

k, face pale, fresh tears of

d by her own son, in defense of this woman-she was l

better. This wasn't protection. It was control. He was protecting his own decree, not her, asserting authority over ever

he looked at Adeline again, the humiliation she had

me." Not

d a shattered bowl and two women starin

ion as impassive

Chapter End

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Reborn as the Nightingale: Escaping the Duke's Poisoned Marriage

Xin Miaomiao History

“I died with the taste of bitter almonds burning in my throat. My husband, Kian Ferguson, watched me collapse over the poisoned wine. He did not call for help. He did not kneel beside me. He only looked at me with cold, satisfied eyes, as if my death had finally made room for the woman he truly wanted-his delicate cousin, Isabelle. In my first life, I begged for his love. I endured his family's humiliation. I drank the bitter tonics they forced upon me in the name of fertility, even as my body grew weaker by the day. I was blamed for an empty nursery, mocked as a barren wife, and trapped in a marriage that was slowly killing me. Then I opened my eyes again. I was back five years in the past, riding beside Kian at the King's autumn hunt-the very day I first saw how he looked at Isabelle. This time, I did not weep. I did not fight for him. I returned to Blackwood Manor and asked for an annulment. Kian laughed in my face. "You want to leave?" he said, seizing my arms. "There are only two ways out of this marriage, Adeline. In a coffin, or with my permission. And I will grant you neither." I went to the King for justice. The Crown turned me away. They all believed I had nowhere left to run. A discarded wife. A useless vine. A woman with no power, no allies, and no future beyond the Duke's gilded cage. They were wrong. I sold my dowry in secret. I bought merchant ships under a hidden name. I gathered remedies, debts, secrets, and gold. If no one would grant me freedom, I would purchase it myself. If no one would give me justice, I would become powerful enough to demand it. And by the time Kian Ferguson realizes his unwanted wife has become the mysterious Nightingale, it will be far too late to cage me again.”